You can spend millions of dollars on network security, but it's all for
naught if the data center has physical weaknesses that leave it open to
intruders. Red team experts hired to social-engineer their way into an
organization say they regularly find physical hacking far too easy.
Ryan Jones, senior security consultant with Trustwave's SpiderLabs, says data
centers he has investigated for security weaknesses commonly have the same
cracks in the physical infrastructure that can be exploited for infiltrating
these sensitive areas. Jones says the five simplest ways to hack into a data
center are by crawling through void spaces in the data center walls,
lock-picking the door, "tailgating" into the building, posing as contractors or
service repairman, and jimmying open improperly installed doors or windows.
